07c: The Roman State Religion

Like most ancient societies, the Romans started out worshiping animistic deities - that is, gods and goddesses with no particular human personality or human appearance. These animistic deities, or numina,  were generally connected with agriculture and the home. For example, Sterculinus (or "Poop God") was the god of manure; bizarre as it may sound to us twenty-first century city slickers, the Romans may not have understood why poop made such an effective fertilizer, but they knew that it worked. And they intended to keep the poop doing its job by - of course - offering thanks and praise to Poop God. Even when Rome became more urbanized, this sort of deity remained popular. The Cloaca Maxima, built under the Etruscans to drain the swamps between the hills of Rome into the Tiber, was overseen by a goddess named Cloacina (or "Sewer Goddess"). Since the sewer kept the Roman Forum dry, obviously Cloacina had to be kept happy. Early in their history the Romans acquired from the Etruscans a state religion based upon the Ancient Greek deities. But they never forgot or ignored the humble religious practices of their illustrious ancestors. The household gods called the Lares and Penates were especially beloved, as was the personal Genius, or guardian spirit. In Imperial times, the emperor's Genius would itself be worshiped as a god. The mos maiorum applied even to Roman religion.

Before explaining how the Romans assimilated the anthropomorphic Ancient Greek deities, two terms have to be defined. First, the word "anthropomorphic" means that these gods and goddesses basically look and behave like mortal men and women... only they are stronger, more beautiful, and are immortal. Belief in anthropomorphic deities usually becomes more common as a civilization becomes more advanced. An anthropomorphic deity, with a human appearance and human personality traits, seems easier to understand and easier to persuade than an animistic counterpart. The animistic supreme god of the archaic Romans was Juppiter, or "Shining Father." Juppiter was quite literally a lightning bolt, fond of striking oak trees, which became the official tree of this animistic god. Through a process called syncretism, the Romans gradually adopted the Greek gods and goddesses, usually in Etruscanized form. Syncretism suggested that Juppiter was basically equivalent to the Greek supreme god Zeus, hurler of thunderbolts and the number one cause of teenage Greek pregnancy. Through syncretism, Jupiter's wife Juno became associated with Zeus's wife Hera; the Roman housecraft goddess Minerva became associated with the Greek housecraft goddess Athena; the sewer goddess Cloacina became associated with the looooove goddess Venus.  It is generally assumed that the funky Etruscans were also involved in the process, as many Etruscan deities show both Greek deities' names and the Roman deities' personalities. Finally, the Roman anthropomorphic gods and goddesses constituted a family ruled (in the very best Roman sense) by the great shining father Jupiter.

Unlike the major religions of the modern world, and certainly unlike the Judeo-Christian tradition, the ancient Roman deities didn't care at all about human morality or human actions. The relationship between the Romans and their deities was not a spiritual bond, but a business contract. A Roman prayed for favor from a god or goddess and offered to do the deity a favor if the deity granted him or her a favor. In Latin, this was called do ut des or "I give, so that you may give." If the favor was granted, the Roman was expected to carry out his or her end of the bargain. If the favor was not granted, the Roman was under no obligation to do anything. In the case of the official public rituals dating back to Rome's second king, Numa Pompilius, these had to be performed exactly as handed down or, again, the gods would be angry. If there was any flaw in the ritual - if a sacrificial animal made the wrong noise or the priest mispronounced a phrase or someone in the audience started laughing, the entire ritual had to be started again from the very beginning, a process called instauratio. In particularly difficult political or military situations, the Romans would naturally assume that some god or goddess, identity unknown, had been offended. The pax deorum, or peace of the gods, had been broken, and difficulties would continue until the offended deity was identified and placated. As a rule, the Romans were open to the worship of other peoples' deities - provided that they were willing to worship Roman deities. The only exception was made in the case of religions which seemed to go against the official Roman core values... such as the Bacchic worshipers of Dionysus in the second century BC and the Christians in the first century AD.

We can speak of the Romans' religion as a state religion because it was run by the Roman state, for the good of the Roman state. In the days of the monarchy, the king was the supreme priest of the religion and appointed all of the lesser priests. In republican times, the chief priest, or Pontifex Maximus, was elected, as were the members of the other, lesser priesthoods. The magistrates of the Roman state also had the right to consult augurs, haruspices, and/or other fortunetellers on behalf of the state. Practically from Rome's founding, kings and then elected magistrates built huge temples to the great gods and goddesses - Jupiter, Juno, Minerva. Each temple became the site of rituals enhancing the glory of the Roman state (and the glory of the magistrate who built the temple). Although the Roman state religion was a great unifying factor, it failed the Roman people in one crucial respect. The Roman gods and goddess didn't care about humans, so there seemed to be no reason for human existence - just be a good Roman, do your duty, and don't ask questions - and offered no hope of a satisfactory afterlife. Greco-Roman myths of the afterlife offered lots of depressing details but very little comfort. So the Roman people as a whole turned to other forms of worship which might better meet their spiritual needs. This spiritual dissatisfaction with the Roman state religion only got deeper as society changed and the religious rituals remained static.